Sub. HB1 Changes for Primary and Secondary Education

The following are just some of the changes that have been made to the education components of the state budget bill, HB1 (Sykes) in the substitute bill that was accepted by the House Finance and Appropriations Committee on April 21, 2009. This summary was prepared from the Legislative Services Commission (LSC) Comparison Document for the Ohio Department of Education, information prepared by the Ohio House of Representatives on the changes recommended for HB1 (Sykes), and the bill. Additional information on the education components for Sub. HB1 will be included after the House approves the bill. For a complete analysis of the changes, see the LSC website >

Earmarks for Education Programs

Includes approximately $35 million a year for earmarked programs that were not included in HB1 as introduced. The earmarks are included under the following programs:

Alternative Education Programs

• NEW. $250,000 in each fiscal year for Kids Unlimited to support its after-school program.
• NEW. $100,000 in each fiscal year for the Cincinnati Arts and Technology Center.
• NEW. $100,000 in each fiscal year to support the Toledo Tech Academy.
• NEW. $25,000 in each fiscal year for the Beaver Creek Wildlife Education Center.
• NEW. $100,000 in FY 2011 to be used by the Green Local School District in Summit County, in partnership with The University of Akron, to create a distance learning pilot program.
• NEW. $50,000 in each fiscal year for the after-school programs of the Monroe Community Center in Stark County.

School Management Assistance

• NEW. ELIMINATES up to $1 million in each fiscal year to fund studies associated with the Cleveland Municipal School District Early Adopter Project and for ODE to assist with training and implementation of the project. The Cleveland Early Adopter Project was eliminated from the bill as introduced.

Academic Standards

• NEW. Earmarks $1.5 million in each fiscal year for Project Lead the Way.

School Improvement Initiatives

• NEW. Up to $2 million in FY11 to fund grants for a pilot subsidy program for creative and innovative classrooms.
• NEW. Up to $3.5 million in each fiscal year to create early college high schools, to be distributed according to guidelines established by ODE and BOR.

Literacy Improvement: Professional Development

• NEW. Earmarks up to $100,000 in each fiscal year to establish a teacher leader training site at Marietta College in FY10 and to provide training for reading recovery teachers by a teacher leader in FY11.

National Underground Railroad Freedom Center

• NEW. Earmarks $500,000 per year for National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, to be used for education programs, student transportation, and admission.

Gifted Pupil Program

• NEW. Earmarks $500,000 a year for the Summer Honors Institute, including funding for the Martin Essex Program.

Special Education Enhancements

• NEW. $75,000 in each fiscal year for Leaf Lake/Geauga Educational Assistance Funding.
• NEW. $500,000 in each fiscal year to support the Bellefaire Jewish Children’s Bureau.
• NEW. $650,000 in each fiscal year to support Project More for one-to-one reading mentoring.
• NEW. Up to $1,500,000 in each fiscal year for parent mentoring programs.
• NEW. Up to $2,783,396 in each fiscal year for school psychology interns.

Foundation Funding

• NEW. Earmarks up to $8,100,000 in each fiscal year to fund gifted education units at educational service centers (ESCs).
• NEW. Earmarks $100,000 in each fiscal year to be used by the American Academy of Pediatrics for the Reach Out and Read Program.
• NEW. Earmarks up to $500,000 in each fiscal year for ODE to contract with the Children’s Hunger Alliance to expand access to child nutrition programs

Changes to the Evidence Based Model

The following changes adjust the Ohio Evidence-Based Model (OEBM) to address several issues raised by education stakeholders and the public.

Federal Stimulus Funds

• Separates Title 1 and IDEA funds (approximately $922 million) from the GRF and places them in Special Revenue Funds category to clearly delineate the state and federal resources provided to each district.

10-Year Phase-in

• Extends the timeline for implementation of the education and school funding reforms from 8 to 10 years to provide districts adequate time to adjust.

Transitional Aid and Caps

• Provides that no district’s combined state share of the adequacy amount plus prorated transportation payment in FY10 is less than 100% of its transitional aid base for FY09. Also, no district’s combined state share of the adequacy amount plus prorated transportation payment in FY11 is less than 98% of its FY10 amount, and includes the amount calculated for career-technical education in the base for transitional aid.
• CHANGE. Limits growth in a district’s state share of the adequacy amount plus prorated transportation payment in FY10 to no more than 101.9 percent of its transitional aid base for FY09, and in FY11, to no more than 101.9 percent of its FY10 amount.

PASS Form

• NEW. Renames the “SF-3” form developed by ODE to compute each district’s foundation funding as the Pathway to Student Success Form (PASS).

Educational Challenge Factor

• CHANGE. Changes the Governor’s Instructional Quality Index, which has been renamed the Educational Challenge Factor (ECF); places greater weight on property wealth; and applies the index to additional parts of the OEBM (tutors, summer remediation and enrichment funds).

Local Share of the Adequacy Amount

• Under current law, school districts contribute 23 mills of their recognized valuation toward base cost funding and up to 3.3 mills of recognized valuation toward special education, career-technical education, and transportation funding.
• NEW. Calculates each district’s local share (“charge-off”) of the adequacy amount as 22 mills in FY10-FY11, 21 mills in FY12-FY13, and 20 mills in FY14 and thereafter times the district’s total taxable valuation. Phasing-down the charge-off to 20 mills by 2014 increases the state share of the calculated adequacy amount and reduces the local share.

Adequacy Components

Defines the adequacy amount of the proposed school funding formula to include

• Instructional services support under R.C. 3306.05
• Additional services support under R.C. 3306.06
• Administrative services support under R.C. 3306.07
• Operations and maintenance support under R.C. 3306.08
• Gifted education and enrichment support under R.C. 3306.09 and enrichment support in R.C. 3306.091
• Technology resources support under R.C. 3306.10
• Professional development factor, calculated by multiplying the sum of a school district’s core teacher, specialist teacher, lead teacher, and special education teacher
• Instructional materials factor, calculated by multiplying the school district’s formula ADM by $165, phased in for all school districts at 20% for FY10, 30% for FY11, 40% for FY12-13, 60% for FY14-15, and 80% for FY16-17. The phased-in amount for instructional materials is $33 per student for FY10 and $49.50 per student for FY11

Organizational Units

• Uses the number of organizational units to determine the components of the adequacy. Calculates the number of organizational units for all but small school districts, as the sum of the following:
• the number of elementary school organizational units, which is calculated by dividing formula ADM for grades K-5 by 418
• the number of middle school organizational units, which is calculated by dividing formula ADM for grades 6-8 by 557
• the number of high school organizational units, which is calculated by dividing formula ADM for grades 9-12 by 733
• NEW. Specifies that each small school district, defined as having a formula ADM of less than 418 students, constitutes one organizational unit.
• NEW. Specifies that each school district, regardless of its formula ADM shall have at least one organizational unit.
• NEW. Clarifies that a high school or an elementary school may consist of less than one or more than one organizational unit for school funding purposes.

Rural Districts

• Lowers the minimum district size and guarantees a principal for every school in rural districts.

District Administration

• Creates an administration factor to provide districts with flexibility in central office staffing.

Instructional Support Services

• Defines the instructional services support component as consisting of funding for core teachers, specialist teachers, lead teachers, special education teachers, special education teacher’s aides, limited English proficiency (LEP) teachers, and supplemental teachers.
• CHANGE. Defines a specialist teacher as one who provides instruction in music, art, or physical education, and also dance and drama/theater.
• CHANGE. Specifies total funding for instructional services support be calculated as the Educational Challenge Factor (ECF) times the statewide base teacher salary of $56,902 in FY10 and $57,812 in FY11. Funding per teacher ranges from $43,442 to $93,784 in FY10 and from $44,136 to $95,284 in FY11, depending on the district’s Education Challenge Factor.
• NEW. Phases-in the ratios for Core Teachers: K-3 to 1:19 for FY 2010-FY 2011, 1:17 for FY 2012-FY 2013, and 1:15 for FY 2014 and thereafter.
• Specialist teachers. 20% of the number of core teachers determined for grades K-8, 25 percent of the number of core teachers determined for grades 9-12.
• NEW. Eliminates the provision for career-technical education teachers: 10% of the number of core teachers determined for grades 9-12 from Instructional Support Services. Calculates career-technical education funding for school districts in FY10 as 101.9% of the aggregate amount of vocational education weighted funding received in FY09, and in FY11 as 101.9% of the amount paid in FY10. Specifies that this funding be provided in addition to the state share of the adequacy amount. By removing funding for career-technical education outside of the adequacy amount, the state pays the entire calculated amount (there is no local share).

Additional Support Services

• CHANGE. Defines additional services support components as family and community liaisons (previously called student support staff), counselors, summer remediation, nurse wellness coordinators, (previously school nurses), and district health professionals (previously registered nurses).
• NEW. ELIMINATES funding in FY10-11 for counselors, but specifies that counselors be funded in the future as one counselor for every 250 students in grades 6-12, using a salary of $66,375 in FY10 and $67,660 in FY11.
• Specifies summer remediation be funded as one teacher for every 30 participating students, where the participating students are calculated as 50% of economically disadvantaged students, using a stipend of $3,000 per teacher, and multiplies the $3,000 stipend by the ECF.
• NEW. ELIMINATES funding in FY10-11 for school wellness coordinators, but specifies that funding for school wellness coordinators be set by law.
• NEW. ELIMINATES funding in FY10-11 for district health professionals, but specifies that funding for district health professionals be set in law.

Administrative Support Services

• CHANGE. Renames district administration support component as consisting of funding for superintendents, treasurers, principals, and administrative support personnel, and combines funding for superintendents and treasurers and renames it district administration.
• NEW. Combines funding for superintendents and treasurers under district administration and provides funding per district of $187,176 for FY10 and $190,801 for FY11 with no phase-in percentage applied.
• Specifies principals be funded as one per organizational unit, using a salary of $89,563 in FY10 and $91,297 in FY11, and guarantees funding for each “type 1” district (rural/agricultural, high poverty, low median FY11 income), and “type 2” district (rural/agricultural, small student population, low poverty, low to moderate median income), as specified in typology published by ODE in June 2007, for at least one principal at each of its buildings.
• Specifies that administrative support personnel includes building managers, secretaries, and noninstructional aides, and specifies that all school districts shall receive funding for at least one building manager and one secretary.
• NEW. ELIMINATES funding for noninstructional aides in FY10-11. Specifies for the future two aides per elementary and middle school organizational unit, and three non nstructional aides per high school organizational unit, using a salary of $19,966 in FY10 and $20,353 in FY11.

Operations and Maintenance

• CHANGE. Decreases the operations and maintenance support funding to $884 per student, and increases the phase in at 45% in FY10-11, 75% in FY12-13, and 75% in FY14-15. The phased-in amount is $397.80 per student in FY10 and FY11.

NEW. Gifted Education and Enrichment Support

• ELIMINATES the $25 per student for gifted education in the bill as introduced and REPLACES it with a new formula for gifted education. The phased-in amount for gifted intervention specialists ranges from $8,688 to $18,757 in FY10 and from $8,827 to $19,057 in FY11 per organizational unit. The phased-in amount for professional development for gifted intervention specialists per organizational unit is $366.60 in FY10 and $549.90 in FY11. The phased-in amount for student enrichment, prior to the application of the ECF, is $20 per student in FY 2010 and $30 per student FY 2011.

Components for Gifted Education

• Calculates funding for gifted student identification as $5 per student.
• Calculates funding for gifted coordinators as one per 2,500 students at $66,375 in FY10 and $67,660 in FY11.
• Calculates funding for gifted intervention specialists as one per organizational unit at the statewide base teacher salary adjusted by the ECF and phased in at 20 percent in FY10, 30 percent in FY11, 40 percent in FY12-FY13, 60 percent in FY14-FY15, and 80 percent in FY16-FY17.
• Calculates funding for gifted intervention specialist professional development at $1,833 per organizational unit, phased in at 20% in FY10, 30 percent in FY11, 40% in FY12-FY13, 60% in FY14-FY15, and 80% in FY16-FY17.
• Disqualifies a district for gifted education support funding if the district does not submit its annual report specifying the number of students identified as gifted, or reports zero students identified as gifted.
• Allows districts to use up to 15% of the gifted intervention specialist funds attributable to grades 6-12 for services specified in gifted students’ written education plans, but not described in the laws governing gifted education, subject to ODE’s approval.
• Requires that funds for gifted be spent in accordance with rules adopted by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and requires that those rules specify the gifted education support component be spent only on staff and services for identified gifted students in accordance with the State Board’s operating standards for services to gifted students. Requires the Superintendent’s rules take effect July 1, 2011.
• Requires a district that received gifted unit funding in FY09 to spend on services to identified gifted students in subsequent fiscal years not less than the amount of FY09 gifted unit funding, and disallows such a district from applying for or receiving a waiver of this requirement.
• Allows any other district to apply for a waiver from spending its gifted education support funding on gifted student services, but limits the duration of such a waiver.
• Directs each school district to account for expenditures of the amount received for gifted education support, and report it to ODE for each of the four factors of gifted education support.
• CHANGE. Calculates enrichment support funding as $100 per student, phased in at 20% in FY10-11, 30% in FY11, 40% in FY12-FY 2013, 60% in FY14-FY15, and 80% in FY16-FY17, and applies the ECF to the calculation. Directs each school district to account for expenditures of the amount received for enrichment support, and report it to ODE. Specifies that enrichment activities encourage creative, as well as intellectual pursuits, including fine arts, and requires enrichment support be used for purposes other than services to identified gifted students.

Special Education Weights

• CHANGE. Updates the weights used to calculate weighted special education.
• NEW. Changes the special education categories as follows:(1) moves “vision impaired” students from category three to category four; (2) moves “orthopedically disabled” students from category four to category five.

Transportation Funding

• Enacts a new formula for transportation funding for school districts based on recommendations of ODE. The bill appropriates $386.7 million in FY10 and $401.5 million in FY11 for transportation, of which $376.9 million in each fiscal year is reserved for the prorated portion of transportation aid. Directs additional funds be distributed for transportation of nontraditional riders (community school, STEM school, or nonpublic school students), transportation of high school students, transportation of students enrolled in grades K-8 who live less than two miles but more than one mile from school, and demonstration of efficiency by transporting more than a target number of students per bus.
• Limits the allocation for each district to the district’s actual transportation costs.
• Continues to require ODE to pay for students transported by a method other than school bus service using a formula adopted by the State Board.
• Requires that, in FY10 and FY11, ODE pay a prorated portion of the amount calculated for each school district based on state appropriations for transportation.
• NEW. Phases in at 30% in FY10 and 70% in FY11 a supplemental transportation payment to school districts with both a parity aid wealth per pupil (factoring property value and income) below the state median and bus ridership density below the state median equaling the difference between the full calculated amount for transportation and the prorated payment the district would otherwise receive.

Joint Vocational School Districts Funding

• Directs ODE to distribute funds within GRF appropriation item 200550, Foundation Funding, to each joint vocational school district (JVSD) receiving funds in FY 2009. Specifies that each JVSD receive funding equal to the amount received in the previous year inflated by 1.9%.
• Requires the Partnership for Continued Learning to establish a JVSD funding committee to study the funding of lead districts, and specifies that the representatives of JVSDs include at least one superintendent and one treasurer, and adds a member of a school district board of education, appointed by the Governor, to the Committee.

Educational Service Centers Funding

• Increases the earmark for ESC payments to $47 million in each fiscal year, and lowers the FY10 earmark for performance reviews to $5 million. Also restores $8.1 million in gifted unit funding to ESCs.
• Establishes the Educational Service Center (ESC) Study Committee to study the current ESC system and how it supports school districts in academic achievement, teacher quality, shared educational services, and the purchasing of services and commodities. Requires a progress report due by July 1, 2010 and a final report due to the Governor by October 1, 2010.
• NEW. Adds a member of a school district board of education, appointed by the Governor, to the committee.
• Requires each ESC to undergo a performance REVIEW rather than AUDIT every 5 years, and requires ODE to review the final report of each ESC performance review and, if necessary, to provide technical assistance to the service center.
• NEW. Places a 2-year moratorium on the consideration and effect of resolutions for local school districts to relocate from their current ESCs to adjacent ESCs and voids recently approved, as well as pending, resolutions for such relocations.

Community School Funding

• Appropriates $470.9 million in FY10 and $511.2 million in FY11 for formula aid payments to community schools, including e-schools.
• Requires that state payments be made directly to community schools, calculated using some elements of the adequacy amount for school districts, as follows.
• Replaces the provision in the bill as introduced with a provision that calculates organizational units at one per 291 students, with a minimum of 0.5 organizational unit for brick and mortar schools, and a maximum of one organizational unit for e-schools
• NEW. Specifies a base teacher salary of $51,407 for FY10 and $52,230 for FY 11. These salary levels are more than the average teacher salary level for charter schools.
• NEW. Replaces the provision in HB 1 as introduced with a provision that applies the Educational Challenge Factor to the same components as for school districts. Applies the ECF of the sponsor district, if the community school is either a conversion school that was open for instruction prior to July 1, 2009, or a start-up school that is sponsored by a school district and has at least 50% of its students coming from that district. Applies the statewide average ECF to a community school that is rated for the previous school year as continuous improvement or higher. Applies the greater of the two if the community school meets both criteria.
• NEW. Caps annual growth in per pupil payments to community schools in each fiscal year at 1.9%.
• Adjusts the model for “brick and mortar” community schools as follows:
• For additional services support, limits community schools to one counselor regardless of enrollment size, and one school nurse wellness coordinator or one health professional for an ADM threshold of 418, BUT ELIMINATES funding for these components during the FY10-FY11 biennium.
• For administrative services support, does not provide funding for a superintendent or a treasurer, but calculates funding for principals and building managers as one per organizational unit, and guarantees funding for at least one-half of one building manager and one-half of one secretary.
• Adjusts the model for Internet- or computer-based community schools (“e-schools”). Provides funding for core teachers, special education teachers, special education teacher’s aides, and LEP teachers. Determines the number of core teachers funded by using a 1:125 student to teacher ratio for all grades. Does not provide funding for specialist teachers, career-technical teachers, lead teachers, or supplemental teachers. Provides funding for counselors, but ELIMINATES funding in FY10-11.
• Does not provide funding for student support staff, summer remediation, school wellness coordinators, or school health professionals registered nurses, administrative services support (superintendent, treasurer, principals, and administrative support personnel), operations and maintenance support, gifted education and enrichment support, or professional development.
• Provides $1,037 per pupil for technical equipment with no phase-in applied; does not provide funding for media services.
• Repeals the law requiring each e-school to spend at least a portion of its per-pupil state payment on instruction, as the calculation is based on elements of the current funding formula, instead of the new model.
• NEW. Prohibits payment to a community school primarily serving dropouts for any time a student spends in nonclassroom learning opportunities.
• NEW. Requires ODE to compute the aggregate funding for two or more brick-and-mortar community schools located in the same building as if they were one community school, and to pay each of the schools a per pupil amount of the aggregate, if the schools have at least one common member on their respective governing authorities and the same chief administrative officer.
• Community School Operators. NEW. ELIMINATES the provision at requires operators of community schools to be nonprofit entities. Requires that contracts between a community school and an operator be selected through a competitive bidding process established by ODE.
• Community School Sponsors. NEW. Prohibits a sponsor from initially entering into a sponsorship contract with a community school if more than 33% of the sponsor’s existing schools are in academic watch or academic emergency.
• Community School Consolidation. NEW. Permits two or more brick-and-mortar community schools located in the same building that have at least one common member on their respective governing authorities and the same chief administrative officer to consolidate into one community school.
• Community School Reporting. NEW. Requires community school sponsors annually to report to ODE information about operators hired by the schools they sponsor.
• Closure of Community Schools. NEW. Revises the current performance criteria for automatic closure of a community school effective July 1, 2009, as follows:
• For schools that do not offer a grade higher than 3, requires closure if the school has been in academic emergency for three of the four most recent years, instead of four consecutive years.
• For schools that offer any of grades 4 to 8 but no grade higher than 9, requires closure if the school has been in academic emergency for two of the three most recent years, instead of three consecutive years, and has shown less than one year of academic growth in reading or math for at least two of the three most recent years;
• For a school that offers any of grades 10 to 12, requires closure if the school has been in academic emergency for three of the four most recent years, instead of three consecutive years with two years not showing two years of academic growth in reading or math.
• Exempts from automatic closure community schools in which a majority of the enrolled students are children with disabilities receiving special education and related services.
• Community School Site Evaluation
• CHANGE. Requires ODE to conduct an on-site visit of each community school to evaluate the school’s operations, along with an evaluation of district-operated schools. Specifies that each site-visit shall include school tours, classroom observations, and interviews with administrators, teachers, or other school staff, parents, community members, or students. Requires schools to provide any data, documents, or other materials ODE considers necessary to conduct a thorough on-site visit. Requires ODE, upon completion of each visit, to issue a written report summarizing its findings and establishes procedures for review of the report by the sponsor and governing authority of the school. Requires ODE to post the final version of the report on its website.
• Permits the sponsor of a community school to consider the findings contained in the report in deciding whether to place the school in probationary status, to suspend the operation of the school, or to terminate the school’s contract. Specifies that ODE may revoke the sponsor’s approval to sponsor community schools if the sponsor fails to take any of these actions ODE determines are warranted based on the report.
• Requires the State Board of Education to adopt rules to implement this section.
• Community Schools Funding and Expenditure Accountability Reports. Requires ODE annually to prepare a funding and expenditure accountability report for each community school and STEM school as it currently does for all school districts.

Assessment for Nonpublic Schools

• NEW. Replaces a provision in the bill as introduced that requires all nonpublic school students in private schools that accept scholarships to take state assessments, with a provision that requires testing of scholarship students enrolled in nonpublic schools under the Cleveland Scholarship Program. Testing of scholarship students in the Ed Choice Program is already required under current law.
• NEW. Requires ODE to post disaggregated assessment data for voucher students on its web site and to provide parents of students eligible for vouchers with that information.
• NEW. Requires ODE to provide the parent of each voucher student with information comparing the student’s performance on the assessments with the performance of similar students enrolled in the school district building the student would otherwise attend.

Ohio Research Funding Model Advisory Council

• CHANGE. Establishes the Ohio School Funding Research Advisory Council (rather than the Ohio Research-Based Funding Model Advisory Council) to submit biennial recommendations for revisions to the components of the adequacy amount calculation. Directs the Council to meet quarterly, beginning August 2009, and submit its recommendations by December of each even-numbered year. There is no direct appropriation for this purpose in the bill, however the bill earmarks $600,000 in each fiscal year for the Office of School Resource Management which, among its other duties, is directed to provide staffing assistance to the Council, and $700,000 in each fiscal year for the Center for Creativity and Innovation which, among its other duties, is directed to provided staffing assistance to the council.
• Directs the Office of School Resource Management in ODE and the Center for Creativity and Innovation to provide staffing assistance to the Council, and designates who will be on the council, including two new members: one representative of philanthropic organizations, appointed by the governor; one representative of the Ohio Academy of Science, appointed by the governor.
• NEW. Requires the council, when preparing its first report, to analyze the adequacy of the model’s financing for gifted education services, career-technical education, arts education, services for limited English proficient students, and early college high schools.
• NEW. Authorizes the council to address strategies and incentives to promote school cost-saving measures and efficiencies, options for adding learning time to the school year, the adequacy of the model’s accounting for and financing of operation costs, and the accuracy of the funding model’s component calculations and the model as a whole.
• NEW. Establishes a subcommittee of the council to make recommendations for fostering collaboration between school districts and community schools, including fiscal incentives for collaboration. Requires the subcommittee to report its findings by September 1, 2010, and periodically thereafter.
• NEW. Permits the council to establish other subcommittees and to appoint noncouncil members to those subcommittees.

School Spending Accountability

• NEW. Requires the State Superintendent to adopt rules prescribing spending and reporting requirements for particular components of the adequacy amount, classified into three categories: core academic strategies, academic improvement, and other funded components.
• NEW. Requires that the rules for spending and reporting for core academic strategies apply to all school districts, community schools, and STEM schools; not take effect earlier than July 1, 2010; and provide flexibility for districts and schools rated as effective or excellent.
• NEW. Requires that rules for spending and reporting for academic improvement apply only to school districts, community schools, and STEM schools in academic emergency or academic watch for two or more consecutive years, and not take effect earlier than July 1, 2011.
• NEW. Requires that rules on other components apply to all school districts, community schools, and STEM schools; prescribes only reporting standards and not spending standards; and not take effect earlier than July 1, 2010.
• Requires ODE to annually reconcile each district’s, community school’s, and STEM school’s spending plan with its actual spending.
• Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to certify to the State Board of Education by July 15 each year the amount each city, local, and exempted village school district spent in the previous fiscal year on each component of the district’s adequacy amount.
• CHANGE. Requires each school district, community school, and STEM school to undergo a performance REVIEW rather than AUDIT once every 5 years under the direction of the Office of School Resource Management within ODE. Requires each district or school to submit a written response that specifies a timeline for implementing the REVIEW’s recommendations. Requires that, at the end of that timeline, each district or school report its progress on implementing the recommendations.
• NEW. Requires ODE to develop the “Formula Accountability and Transparency” form (FACT form) to provide a public comparison of funded components and actual spending for school districts, community schools, and STEM schools.

Center for Creativity and Innovation and the Harmon Commission

• Creates the Center for Creativity and Innovation within ODE to monitor, develop, and disseminate information about creative and innovative education practices for assistance to school districts and JVSDs; research practices in arts education and creativity as areas for the center to identify promising programs and practices, and includes ESCs, community schools, and STEM schools in the list of those to be served by the center. The bill earmarks up to $700,000 in each fiscal year to support the activities of this center.
• NEW. Requires the Center to study best practices and innovative programming developed by community schools, and promote collaboration between school districts and community schools.
• NEW. Requires the Center to provide staff assistance to the Ohio School Funding Research Advisory Council.
• NEW. Harmon Commission: Establishes the 21-member Harmon Commission, appointed by legislative leaders and the governor, to review applications for and designate classrooms operated by school districts and community schools as creative learning environments in accordance with guidelines adopted by the State Board of Education. Earmarks $2 million in FY11 for the pilot subsidy program.
• NEW. Requires ODE, through the Center for Creativity and Innovation, to provide staff to assist the Harmon Commission.
• NEW. Authorizes each school district and each community school, if the community school has a memorandum of understanding with one or more school districts that specifies a collaborative agreement, to apply to the Harmon Commission for designation of one or more classrooms as creative learning environments.
• NEW. Authorizes any school district in the lowest quintile of income wealth and any community school with a creative learning environment designation in one or more of the district’s or community school’s classrooms to apply for a pilot subsidy.
• NEW. Establishes the FY11 subsidy as $100 times the number of students enrolled in each creative learning environment classroom. Requires that ODE select districts and community schools that apply for the subsidy on a first-come, first-served basis.

All-Day Kindergarten

• Requires each school district to offer all-day kindergarten to all kindergarten students, beginning in FY11, subject to the following exceptions: requires districts to continue to accommodate kindergartners whose parents elect to enroll them for only half-day kindergarten; permits districts to apply for a waiver of the requirement to the Superintendent of Public Instruction; and permits the Superintendent to take into consideration space concerns or alternative delivery approaches when considering the waiver. The model counts all kindergarten students as full-time students instead of half-time students as under current law and offers an option to address space concerns that may be less costly than other options.
• Eliminates the provision by which districts providing all-day kindergarten may charge tuition or fees.
• NEW. Permits a school district to use space in a child day-care center licensed by the Department of Job and Family Services to provide all-day kindergarten to district students.

Cleveland Municipal School District Early Adopter Project

• NEW. Eliminates the Cleveland Municipal School District Early Adopter Project

Early Childhood Education

• NEW. Reduces GRF appropriations for Early Childhood Education in the budget of the Ohio Department of Education from $34.8 million to $23.3 million in each fiscal year.

Publicly Funded Child Care Providers

• CHANGE. Defines “full-time” for publicly funded child care providers as being at least 32.5 hours and not more than 60 hours per week for licensed child care centers and licensed Type A homes, and at least 32.5 hours and not more than 50 hours per week for certified Type B providers. HB1 as introduced defined full-time week as 35 hours, compared to the current definition of 25 hours.

Publicly Funded Child Care Reimbursements

• NEW. Permits the Director of ODJFS to adopt rules that establish a different system for the payment of publicly funded child care.

School-Based Health Centers

• NEW. Provides that a school-based health center may furnish health assistance services covered under the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) Part I, II, or III if it meets the requirements applicable to other providers of those services.

Early Care and Education

NEW. Makes the following earmarks of GRF line item 600535, Early Care and Education:

• $1 million in each fiscal year for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Ohio for child mentoring programs.
• $1.5 million in each fiscal year for the Children’s Hunger Alliance.
• $10 million in each fiscal year for the Ohio Child Care Resource and Referral Association to distribute funds to organizations that provide summer and after-school programs to TANF-eligible youth.

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